Women, minorities underrepresented in Massachusetts State House

Saturday

Sep 29, 2012 at 12:01 AMSep 29, 2012 at 9:17 PM

Do your state lawmakers look like you? For white men in Massachusetts, the answer usually is yes. Minorities and women are far less likely to find a familiar face on the floor of the House or Senate, even as the state becomes more diverse.

David Riley

Do your state lawmakers look like you?

For white men in Massachusetts, the answer usually is yes. Minorities and women are far less likely to find a familiar face on the floor of the House or Senate, even as the state becomes more diverse.

Women comprise just over half the state’s population, but men outnumber them 3 to 1 on Beacon Hill. Combined, blacks and Latinos hold only 5 percent of the state’s 200 legislative seats, despite making up 6.6 percent and 9.6 percent of the population, respectively, in the 2010 Census. Asian-Americans are more than 5 percent of the state population, but there only are three lawmakers of Asian descent on Beacon Hill. Two are just completing their first terms.

When it comes to reflecting diversity, Massachusetts government falls short of its progressive image, said Paul Watanabe, a political science professor and director of the Institute of Asian American Studies at UMass-Boston.

“The view is held by many people that those who govern should look like those who are governed,” Watanabe said. “There’s no question that in Massachusetts, if we look at the Legislature, there is a huge disparity between those two groups of people.”

That gap is not limited to the Legislature. With an obvious exception in Gov. Deval Patrick, minorities have held few top elected offices in the state. Attorney General Martha Coakley and State Auditor Suzanne Bump are the first women ever elected to their roles.

Political observers and advocates said minorities and women can offer unique perspectives and a firsthand understanding and passion for issues that affect them directly. With too little representation, these voices sometimes go unheard in public policy debates.

Michael Curry, president of the Boston NAACP, recalled a white lawmaker who said he only learned about and decided to tackle racial disparities in health care after an African-American staffer’s mother experienced the problem firsthand.

“We have lacked that access,” Curry said.

Rep. Byron Rushing, D-Boston, an African-American and House assistant majority leader, said he sees the consequences of underrepresentation when Beacon Hill deals with race, discrimination or poverty.

“If you represent those populations, and you come from those populations, you tend to have more knowledge about those problems, and you also have more empathy for those problems,” Rushing said.

Disparities also have been apparent in the culture of the State House. Women lawmakers tend to favor building consensus over taking credit, said Rep. Cory Atkins, D-Concord, co-chairwoman of the Women’s Legislative Caucus.

“The alpha male, chest-thumping thing just doesn’t seem relevant to a lot of females,” she said.

Both women and minorities have faced barriers in winning office.

Legislative voting districts long diluted minority voting power, African-American leaders said. Women faced a tough time breaking into a world that for years was a good ol’ boy network, said Sen. Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, co-chairwoman of the women’s caucus.

Watanabe said it also takes time for recent immigrants to become citizens and begin to vote, much less win elected office.

Some of these obstacles have begun to break down. House districts where minorities make up a majority of voters doubled under redistricting last year, from 10 to 20.

“For a generation of us, that door is starting to open wider,” Curry said.

Women also have made headway, said Spilka, pointing to Senate President Therese Murray as one of several role models for women now on Beacon Hill. Spilka herself is assistant majority whip.

Compared to the male-dominated 1960s and ‘70s on Beacon Hill, “the shenanigans that used to go on with the drinking and the partying and the extramarital stuff, that doesn’t go on as much,” Atkins said.

But both women and minority leaders said they must work to encourage more candidates from their backgrounds to run for office.

“I think we help the pipeline,” Spilka said. “We encourage women to run for town boards, whether it be library trustee or school committee or board of selectmen.”

Rushing said candidates have to be willing to step up in new majority-minority districts.

“You have to run to win,” he said, adding it often takes candidates more than one try.

Still, the power of incumbency and the Democratic Party’s domination of both chambers means turnover and opportunities for newcomers can be rare, Watanabe said. Change in the Legislature is “painfully, glacially slow,” he said.

There is no guarantee a more diverse Legislature would be wiser, but “it might be attuned to a broader range of views and experiences,” he said.

“I think it’s important for people to feel that government is reflective of who they are and their populations,” Spilka said. “We can raise issues, but I think for people to feel a real part of it, to have it a little more reflective of the population, is important.”